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NEWS
28 Feb 2009: True story of the M.S. Antilla (1939) and her crew (updated 3/2009) After having listened to the many stories that are being told about M.S. Antilla and it's crew I decided to do some research on this vessel, initially through internet sources and later on through The Dutch National Archive. I have tried to separate facts from fiction and found out about the real story. M.S. Antilla was built in 1939 by Deutsche Werft in the Finkenwarder area of Hamburg. She was launched on 21 March 1939 and her date of completion was 11 July 1939. The ship (121,4 mtrs/ 400ft, 4363 tons) was built for the German firm Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft (HAPAG).
On 10 May 1940 German forces invaded The Netherlands. At that time the M.S. Antilla was anchored in front of Malmok Beach (Aruba). As the German invasion was considered an act of war the Dutch government ordered all German merchant ships in the Dutch Antilles to be confiscated and the German crews to be arrested. (note: it is often said that the Antilla was a disguised auxiliary ship for U-boats. I have not been able to find any confirmation for this, nor for the presence of ammunition, torpedoes, fuel etc. in the wreck when salvage was considered. Furthermore, prior to May 10, 1940 the ship was repeatedly searched by the military authorities for weapons and nothing was found. Some information suggests that the Antilla carried a load of sulphur which was unloaded in San Nicolas harbour in October 1939. The "U boat supply story" is therefore highly debatable). In order to confiscate the Antilla Dutch marines tried to get on board however the German captain Ferdinand Schmidt refused to lower the gangway and the marines were told by the German crew to return early the next morning. Immediately after that Captain Schmidt ordered the 34 crew members to open the valves and set fire to the ship. When the marines returned to the Antilla a few hours later the ship by then was already listing to port. They could do nothing more than watch the ship as it sank and they arrested the crew that had abandoned ship. (note: in the official documents there is no mention at all of the the crew heating up the boilers of the ship and letting cold seawater flow in thus causing a huge explosion, which is sometimes suggested as being the cause of the sinking. According to an inspection of the wreck by divers between May en August 1940 the superstructure of the ship was damaged by fire but the hull of the ship was undamaged and in one piece. The report concluded the sinking was caused by opening the valves of the vessel. The breaking up of the wreck is a result of heavy swells ). Throughout the Dutch Antilles a total of 220 German merchant sailors were arrested from 15 ships. (note: As well as the crew of the Antilla the crew of the German ship Goslar that was berthed in Dutch Suriname managed to scuttle their vessel before she was confiscated). These merchant sailors were all transported to Bonaire where the sailors were detained in a school building. Next to these sailors 200 German and Austrian civilians (amongst them also civilians that fled the threat of Nazi Germany, as well as approximately 20 persons that were considered a threat to national security because of being alleged Nazi supporters) were being detained in several school buildings. Already on 11 May 1940 an agreement was reached between the Dutch Authorities on Curacao and the British Consul that Great Britain would accept the 220 German merchant sailors and detain them in an internmentcamp in British Jamaica (presumably Up Park Camp). In the period between their arrival on Bonaire and their shipment to Jamaica the sailors had to build an internmentcamp in Bonaire to house the other civilian internees. They finished building the camp early July 1940 and on 5 July 1940 the crew of the Antilla together with their 185 colleagues were escorted to the vessel Jamaica Producer and transported to the camp in British Jamaica where they spent the rest of the war. (note: the internmentcamp in Bonaire was therefore not bought by Captain Schmidt of the Antilla as has been widely suggested, but by a local entrepreneur. On the spot of the camp at first Hotel Zeebad was built and later on Divi Flamingo Hotel, which is still there). Willem, 30 December 2007, updated March 2009 (The author has not been able to identify the owners of some of the pictures used in this article. If you feel that the author is using data that should not belong in this article due to copyright violations please notify the author. The author of this article does not claim to be the owner of the information within and shall therefore remove all content that is copyrighted if the owner of the material requests so. Anybody who claims a copyright however should make it reasonably clear that such a copyright legally exists). [ back ]
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